Glossary - Employment and Work
When a workplace includes workers who belong to a union, a collective agreement sets out conditions of employment, such as wages, hours of work, and overtime pay. The collective agreement includes the process that workers need to use if the employer does not follow the agreement.
Collective bargaining is the process that unionized workers and employers go through to set the conditions of employment, such as wages, hours of work, and overtime pay.
Constructive dismissal happens when your employer makes a fundamental change to your work situation and you don’t agree or accept it. Because of this, your work or your conditions at work change so much that it’s like you’ve been fired.
You commit a crime when you break a federal law. Federal laws apply in all Canadian provinces and territories. The main federal law is the Criminal Code. Things like theft and assault are crimes in the Criminal Code.
In Employment and Work, Housing Law, Human Rights
In Ontario’s human rights laws, the term disability includes many conditions. For example, a disability can be a physical condition, a mental condition, a learning disability, a developmental disability, or a mental illness. Disability also includes being addicted to or dependent on drugs or alcohol.
You could be born with a disability. Or, you could have a disability because you were sick or injured.
In Employment and Work, Housing Law, Human Rights, Income Assistance, Tribunals and Courts
Discrimination happens when an employer, landlord, service provider, or organization you are a member of harasses you, treats you differently or unfairly, or refuses to accommodate you because of personal differences that are listed in the Human Rights Code. Examples of personal differences include a person’s ethnic origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, marital status, or disability.
Examples of discrimination include when an employer refuses to accommodate your disability in a way that would not cause them undue hardship. Or a landlord refuses to rent to you because of your ethnic origin. Or a travel agent refuses to serve you because of your sexual orientation. Or a trade union refuses to let you join because of your disability.
The Employment Standards Act (ESA) provides the minimum standards for most employees working in Ontario. The ESA sets out the rights and responsibilities of employees and employers in most Ontario workplaces.
To file something means giving it to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) and following the rules about how to do this.
If you’re a temporary foreign worker in Canada, financial abuse means that your employer does things like:
- not pay you when they’re supposed to
- take your money
- make you do something with your money or credit cards that you don’t want to do
- charge you fees for to hire you or to find you other work
